Water softener not softening the water anymore ( Solved )

[Venom]

Hi All,

In March bought a new home on 22 acres... Very Rural. I am on well water. Installed a new pump and storage tank and used the existing Water Softener. It is a Pegasus Water Systems PM4800 48K Grain unit. It uses a Clack WS1 Valve and a Sta-Rite RT-1054 Tank. Initially you could feel the softened water. A few weeks ago I noticed the water did not feel soft anymore. I checked the hardness and it was the same coming out of the softener as going in.. About 335ppm. I found the softener manual in the pump house which had the original purchase receipt in it. July of 2004 it was installed and never serviced. I figured it was time to change the resin media. I bought 1.5 cu ft of 8% media along with 20lb of gravel. I took the unit apart, drained it washed the inside thoroughly. The feed tube and filter screen looked good after cleaning them. Inserted the feed tube, poured in the grave and added the media. Closed everything back up and did the start up procedure. Once finished I checked the hardness again.. Same thing About 335 both out of the softener and bypassing the softener. I checked the injector and screen both were very clean and working fine. It acts as if the softener is still in bypass mode. The valve seems to be operating properly, it fills the brine tank, pulls in the brine water, rinses and back washes properly. I have not replaced the internals of the valve yet or replaced the bypass valves.. What should be my next move?

Thanks for any help..

 

[ditttohead]

2004, definitely rebuild the valve.

Check to see if the valve meter is reading water flow.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Venom]

2004, definitely rebuild the valve.

Check to see if the valve meter is reading water flow.

Yes the valve is reading water flow... I will order the internal parts today and report back.. Thanks

 

[Venom]

Ok, rebuild parts came today. Clack V3011-01 Up-Flow Piston, V3174 Brine Piston,V3005 Spacer Stack Assembly and a Clack Tool. I also bought a better hardness test kit. HACH 5B
Tested water before starting.. 22 grains hardness per gallon before softener as well as after. Rebuilt valve, let system do a full regeneration and then flushed lines for 10 minutes to house. Did hardness test again. Still 22 grains before the softener, after the softener as soon as I add the Hardness Reagent into the water it is already dark blue. Looks like everything is working great now. I have to say the old parts I took out looked great when I compared them to the new ones, but they must have been worn.

Any recommendations on what my settings should be on the Clack? Thanks for the help.

 

[Mialynette2003]

Ft McCoy has high iron in areas. In order to properly set up the unit, you must know what the iron content is. Bring a sample of water to the Market of Marion row E North to have it tested free of charge.

 

[Venom]

Ft McCoy has high iron in areas. In order to properly set up the unit, you must know what the iron content is. Bring a sample of water to the Market of Marion row E North to have it tested free of charge.

Hi, I am new to the area so I looked up Market of Marion and saw it was open today. Drove 25 miles there and found out SWS is not open on Fridays until September...

 

[Venom]

Ok, Went back to Marion market today. Met Skip with SWS. Great friendly guy. He tested all my samples and everything is working great.
Thanks Again...

 

[ditttohead]

Skip is awesome, I send a lot of people his way, always great feedback!

Thanks Skip again, you are a great asset to this industry!

 

[Venom]

Skip is awesome, I send a lot of people his way, always great feedback!

Thanks Skip again, you are a great asset to this industry!

Actually, Skip suggested asking you this question.. He said you would be pretty knowledgeable.

Everything is testing great.. Almost no iron and water has no hardness, Even though the water tests soft it acts as if it is hard. Much reduced soap suds and no slick feeling in the shower or when washing dishes.. Everything has that squeaky clean feeling. Before the softener had stopped working a tiny bit of soap made lots of suds and everything had the slick feeling. Why is the water acting like it is hard now?

 

[Bannerman]

What were the results of Skip's testing and the settings for your softener?

Suggest purchasing your own Hach 5B Total Hardness test kit to periodically test the incoming and outgoing hardness values and not rely on unreliable 'slick feeling'.

 

[Venom]

What were the results of Skip's testing and the settings for your softener?

Suggest purchasing your own Hach 5B Total Hardness test kit to periodically test the incoming and outgoing hardness values and not rely on unreliable 'slick feeling'.

I bought that kit as noted in my above posts... It's not just the slick feeling. A tiny bit of soap used to make a lot of suds. The soft water as of now makes a small amount of suds compared to before.. Still it is a little better than the un-softened hard water. Just wondering what would cause this major change compared to how the softener was working.....

 

[Bannerman]

Since you didn't state hardness numbers in your latest post, I had forgotten you already obtained the 5B.

When you 'feel' the water is less than soft, does the reagent test still immediately turn Blue?

When you say 'almost no iron', what is almost?

What settings are programmed for your 1.5 cuft softener? Also state your usual water consumption numbers if known, or the number of residents (to estimate consumption).

 

[Venom]

Since you didn't state hardness numbers in your latest post, I had forgotten you already obtained the 5B.

When you 'feel' the water is less than soft, does the reagent test still immediately turn Blue?

When you say 'almost no iron', what is almost?

What settings are programmed for your 1.5 cuft softener? Also state your usual water consumption numbers if known, or the number of residents (to estimate consumption).

Skip's test came out the same as Mine. 22 grains hardness before the softener . The softened water turned Dark Blue Immediately after adding the reagent. No drops needed.
When he tested the softened water for Iron the reading was pretty much below measurable.
The PH of the softened water is 7.1
As of right now I am the only family member at the home.
I am waiting for the rain to stop here and then I am going out t check the settings on the softener. I will report back.

 

[Venom]

Ok, changed the settings on the Softener based ob Skips recommendations Set Hardness to 25, It was at 30. Set Salt to 12lb. it was at 10 Set grains to 30K it was at 35K .. Not really sure on the water consumption numbers...

 

[Reach4]

Are you checking the hardness of the hot water, or cold when you read 0 grains? Could it be that the WH retained hard water, and that is what you feel?

 

[Venom]

Are you checking the hardness of the hot water, or cold when you read 0 grains? Could it be that the WH retained hard water, and that is what you feel?

Both Hot and Cold are blue with no drops added.
I googled "Soft Water feels Hard" and others have asked this question, but I see no one saying why this happens or see anyone saying if they fixed it.

 

[ditttohead]

Not a very easy to answer question. Many things can cause that. Having small amounts of hardness can definitely be a reason, well below what the Hach 5B can test for.

Check out this article by one of the smartest and most respected guys in the water treatment industry.

http://www.wcponline.com/2012/03/05/soft-soft-water/

 

[Venom]

Not a very easy to answer question. Many things can cause that. Having small amounts of hardness can definitely be a reason, well below what the Hach 5B can test for.

Check out this article by one of the smartest and most respected guys in the water treatment industry.

http://www.wcponline.com/2012/03/05/soft-soft-water/

Great read... So, I am guessing I probably have some level of hardness the Hach 5B cannot measure. Do they make an affordable test kit that will measure lower than the 5B?

 

[ditttohead]

probably about $85 for a hardness ppm test kit.

 

[Venom]

probably about $85 for a hardness ppm test kit.

Wow...
I should have added this question above. So I find out I have low level hardness... What would I have to do to fix that? Or should I just live with it?